1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to air assist fuel injection systems, to air assist fuel injectors that are configured to receive a fuel injector, and to air assist fuel injectors that are configured to receive pressurized gas from a head of an engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional fuel injectors are configured to deliver a quantity of fuel to the combustion cylinder of an engine. To increase combustion efficiency and decrease pollutants, it is desirable to atomize the delivered fuel. Generally speaking, atomization of fuel can be achieved by supplying high pressure fuel to conventional fuel injectors, or by atomizing low pressure fuel with pressurized gas, i.e., xe2x80x9cair assist fuel injection.xe2x80x9d To carry out air assisted fuel injection, pressurized gas and liquid fuel are supplied to air assist fuel injectors, which utilize the pressurized gas to atomize the liquid fuel.
Because the amount of space in the engine compartment of many vehicles is limited, it is generally desirable to minimize the size of air assist fuel injection systems, which typically include one or more air assist fuel injectors, one or more fuel injectors for delivering metered quantities of fuel to the air assist fuel injectors, and a rail for delivering pressurized gas and fuel to the injectors. In a typical configuration, the fuel injector is located upstream of the air assist fuel injector and is housed by a rail that supplies fuel to the fuel injector. The fuel injector receives the fuel from the rail and delivers metered quantities of the fuel directly or indirectly to the air assist fuel injector, which often mounts to the rail. Besides communicating fuel to the fuel injector and housing the fuel injector, such rails also typically include one or more internal passageways and external lines that deliver pressurized gas to the air assist fuel injector. The air assist fuel injector atomizes the fuel delivered from the fuel injector with the pressurized gas delivered from the rail and conveys the gas and fuel mixture to the combustion chamber of the engine.
As is apparent, in the conventional configuration, the fuel injector, the rail, and external lines associated therewith occupy critical space above the air assist fuel injector and cylinder head of the engine. Some conventional configurations have attempted to minimize the amount of space occupied by such systems by incorporating variously configured rails, such as rails that mount the fuel injector transverse to the air assist fuel injector. Despite such configurations, there still exists a tremendous need to decrease the space occupied by air assist fuel injection systems.
In light of the previously described problems associated with conventional air assist fuel injection systems, one object of the embodiments of the present invention is to provide an air assist fuel injection system that occupies less space than some conventional configurations.
Other objects, advantages, and features associated with the embodiments of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detail description. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modification and various obvious aspects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and the description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not limitative.